Hours after reconstructing the crime scene with one of the five accused and the male friend of the MBBS student, who was allegedly gangraped on Friday night in a forest area near the medical college in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal, the police on Tuesday arrested the friend. “The friend(of the medical student), who had accompanied her that night, has been arrested. Further investigation is going on,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Asansol-Durgapur) Abhishek Gupta said, adding he was a suspect from the beginning and was being questioned for the last three days. The police said the friend, who studies in the same private medical college, was giving inconsistent statements during interrogation, and has been booked under the same sections as the rest of the five, including gangrape and criminal conspiracy. He will be produced in a court on Wednesday. According to the police, as well as the medical college, the woman student and her male friend had left the campus at 7.58 pm on Friday. He returned alone by 8.42 pm and left again at about 8.48 pm. The two returned together at 9.29 pm. The father of the student, who had filed the police complaint, had earlier raised suspicion over the male friend's role, alleging that he "misled” his daughter to a vacant place after leaving the campus. The MBBS student, who hails from Odisha, was allegedly dragged into a forested area outside her college campus and raped by a group of three to four men after she had gone out with her friend. According to her family, the men took away her mobile phone and demanded Rs 3,000 to return it. The woman student is currently admitted to a hospital, and her condition is said to be stable. On Tuesday, she recorded her statement before a magistrate in which, sources said, she alleged that the friend had “molested” her. During the reconstruction of the crime scene, which was videographed, the woman’s male friend was seen in a blue t-shirt narrating the incident to the police team. Before the arrest of the student’s friend, Commissioner of Police (Asansol-Durgapur Commissionerate) Sunil Chowdhury said: “The woman in her statement said that the sexual physical assault was done by one of the five arrested locals. All the accused persons are in police remand and are being interrogated. We are probing the exact nature of involvement and the role played by the others.” “We are awaiting the forensic as well as the medico-legal report. The male companion is being interrogated. He is still on our suspect list.” Meanwhile, three more BNS sections have been added in the FIR – 304(2) for snatching, 308(2) for extortion, and 317(2) for retaining stolen property. Earlier in the day, the police took two of the arrested persons – Shiekh Riazuddin and Shiekh Nassirudin – to their homes at Birja village and seized the clothes they allegedly had worn on the day of the incident. Their clothes have been sent for forensic examination, said a police officer. The mobile phones seized from the accused were also sent for tests, said police. The police made the first breakthrough in the case on Sunday, almost 36 hours after the incident, when they arrested three persons – Apu Bauri (21), Firdous Shiekh (23), and Shiekh Riazuddin (32). The next day, two more persons — Safiq, 27, and Sheikh Nasiruddin, 24 – were arrested. Police said all five accused were residents of villages in the vicinity of the private medical college where the woman studied. The mobile phone of the student was also recovered from one of them, said police. At present, the five accused are in police custody till October 21.
